I’m so sorry for getting this week’s Etsy Store of the Week feature out so late in the day! This past week has been exhausting both mentally and physically for me and I needed the day to recharge. In order to recharge I stayed up way too late last night playing with a new skill (screen printing), slept in way too late, watched a football game at the bar with hubby and then saw the new Harry Potter movie! It’s been awesome and much-needed. So now I’m finally sitting down for long enough to tell you about this week’s featured store: RoverDog which makes the most stylish coats for dogs that I have ever seen!

RoverDog creates her stylish pet clothing in Toronto and then ships all over the world. And while I’m not usually that big on dressing up my dogs (Ok, except for the holidays!) we now have a wonderful little chihuahua that has decided that mildly chilly is just too cold for her. So on my journey to find something comfortable, warm and not too frilly for Bean, I found it can be frustratingly difficult to find what I want in a dog coat. And then came along RoverDog! This is what I want, and isn’t this dog just dapper?

Taking a look through the shop, I also stumbled upon a cute little number for my nephew-dog-in-law, a yorkie owned by my very preppy and high-end business working in-laws:

And the models in this shop couldn’t be cuter!

These are made to order so if you have troubles fitting a particular dog you can get exactly what you need! And because these are made to order, the last day that you can purchase one and expect it for the holidays is December 1st, so hurry up and pick one out from RoverDog!

So do you dress up your dogs for warmth, charm or fashion? Let me know!

Oh! I’m excited about this week’s Etsy store because it’s one that I’ve had my eye for a while now. There are probably a dozen or so items that I’d love to purchase and I’ve tried to keep it to four – so hard! So this week’s store is Storeyshop, a UK based (I know, I’m so international) hand cut and laser cut greeting card and more shop. The sense of humor and love that comes from Storeyshop is wonderful and makes you stick around to check out her tons of listings (192 right now!). With that much creativity, she’s got something for everyone!

So for the item that I want the most, I’m having a hard time deciding on just one! And then I remembered, hey, this is my blog – I can have more than one! Isn’t life liberating once you realize your own power? Well, that’s true, but yeah, greatly exaggerated in this case. However, these two great cards are ones that I would love to get for Roger on some anniversary soon! Storeyshop has lots more of these “I love you more than…” cards and can customize the message too in case you can’t find exactly what you want.

Another card I’d like to get Roger is this next one. He likes Superman and comics (but prefers the Hulk or Batman if anyone’s listening and caring at the same time) and this would be just right! And I just love the layered work done on this greeting card.

Storeyshop offers some great humor-based love greeting cards, but it’s not all she offers. There are housewarming, birthday, holiday and random occasion cards too. They all have bright colors and bold, simple designs which is the hallmark (ha!) of her cards. Here’s one in particular that I like because of the detail work on the house.

So if you need that special occasion card to let someone know how special they are, or need to stock up on unique Christmas cards, check out Storeyshop on Etsy!

So today, one of the Etsy sellers lucky enough to be featured on the front page was mooshygooshies. And I was immediately drawn to the item that was shown:

Aren’t those just up my alley? Dogs AND crafts! I couldn’t be happier. Ok, maybe if she somehow worked Fat Tire beer into the listing… 🙂

Anyway, I immediately contacted her as the rest of her stuff is just gorgeous. Clean lines, graphic prints and more dog themed items. I’ve asked her to come up with either a pit bull silhouette (I’ll forgive her for overlooking the second most common “breed” in America!) or if she could base a silhouette from Muttley’s adorable mug. I gave her the link to the picture that my business logo is based on, and quite possibly the best picture of Muttley ever. Take a look at it on the front page of my business site here. Wait, you didn’t know that I also run a successful pet sitting and dog walking business, besides my slowly (hint: quite slowly) emerging craft business? Where’ve you been?! I even have an employee! Check it out!

Anyway, enough self promotion. The cute little cards that mooshygooshies offers is what I’m ordering for my annual Thank You cards and gifts for clients of Lucky Mutts this past year. Last year I included little treats for the pets and a Belgian chocolate treat for the humans. This year I’d like to top that by a little. Nothing crazy, but everything totally adorable! And yummy too. I’ll probably be making the pup treats again this year, but maybe a little gift too? Who knows, it’s still early. Though I would like to get these out around Thanksgiving.

Why Thanksgiving and not the holidays? Am I being that politically correct? Heck no! Well, actually in a way… But the main reason is that Thanksgiving is a time to remember those you need to be thanking and for thanking the abundance in life. What a perfect time to thank my customers for keeping me fed the last year and to wish them a happy holiday season. And marketing wise, it’s pretty good timing!

Why even blow money on clients? Because they are the best! They pay me to play with their dogs! They trust me to love and attend to their most cherished ones. It’s a responsibility and a task that I enjoy doing and I’ve been able to craft a wonderful business out of my clients. My small business has allowed me to grow as a person and stretch my creative (and sometimes ADHD) mind in new ways. Lucky Mutts has allowed me to be the wife I want to be, the dog owner others dream about and quite possibly one of the happiest women on earth.

See! I’m getting on all emotional-grateful and I haven’t even ordered the thank you cards yet! Off to play one last game of mah jongg before retiring to bed with my latest marketing required reading. I hope all is wonderful in your world and that you cuddle with your fur-kid with extra love tonight. They deserve it!

This week’s featured Etsy Store is SoFino. SoFino is based in Charlotte, North Carolina (which is quite a distance from her original home of Serbia!) and offers beautiful felted soap that is affordable, beautiful and quite practical thank-you-very-much!

These soaps are so gorgeous your guests may think twice about using them, but if they don’t use the soap, maybe you shouldn’t open your soap-loving home to such dirty guests! hehe… Anyway, if this economy’s got you down, or at least spending a whole lot less on yourself, it may be time to splurge on something truly useful. And as always, my choice first!

Aren’t those just the prettiest? And such beautiful technique SoFino has in order to achieve those perfect silhouettes by felt! Ok, I can hear some of you saying that yes, those are pretty, but what the heck is felted soap!? The felt surrounds the bar of soap to act as a scrubby, sudsy tool and allows you to use the soap to the last sliver. After the soap’s used up, the felt remains and can be filled with more soap, made into a drawer freshener (just add a drop or two of essential oil) or as a plain wool scrubbing pad. So don’t you see how practical this beautiful splurge can be? (Can you tell that I’m convincing myself as well?)

Perfect for the fall and entertaining those Thanksgiving guests. And yes, they’d better wash their grubby little hands before touching my turkey! And she offers some beautiful sets as well:

I just can’t stand it – these soaps are too cute! I think everyone on my holiday shopping list may get soap this year! SoFino offers lots more options, and has some pretty spectacular artistic creations, but I can’t feature her whole Etsy shop here, so go on, go check it out!

Looking for the pertinent links? Well, ever since I got so-super-cool and learned how to link the images to their shopping pages, I’ve felt (get it, ha!) that the pertinent links section isn’t all that necessary. So get to clicking on the above links to her store, or the images themselves! See you all next week!

The Etsy Store of the Week is zukzuk! This graphic artist creates beautiful and imaginative prints with great colors.

This first image is one that I would love to have in a child’s bedroom, or even give to my mom for mother’s day (but sadly, it’s not her style, my mom could use better taste! 😉 ). The colors are wonderful and you can just feel the love between the mom and baby bear. And the scales of color create such a sense of whimsy!

And another great family of bears print (available in a few different colors):

But it’s not just family style prints that zukzuk offers. There are lots of whimsical and sometimes strange prints that would look great in any studio or library. I’m imagining where I would hang them among my books…

A little about the Tronto-based artist behind zukzuk from her profile:

When I was reading a book to my son the other day, one of the characters, a Wombat, said that he liked to think and he liked to dig. I guess that’s a bit like me.

So you can see where the whimsy in her art comes from! Check out her Etsy shop to see the different color variations of her prints and the variety of artwork she offers. Come back next Sunday!

This week’s Etsy Store is JennMaruskaDesign. She creates ridiculously cute items for everyone but also for sewers in particular. Bright, fun, cute and practical are the words that describe JennMaruskaDesign.

Oh my goodness! This is the item that got me to click on this store. I had searched Etsy for iPhone covers since I could use one and it would be a neat gift for a few people who I know as well. I absolutely love the bunny case, but the hedgehog and mouse are adorable as well! Not only do these hold your iPhone but also the cords and earbuds.

JennMaruskaDesign also offers cute little notebooks with felt covers in lots of designs and colors. Here’s one example:

And because I’m such a book-worm, especially today when I had to drag myself to the computer (which is normally just the opposite!), here is an irresistible bookmark, a little “word-bot”:

Aren’t the creations just adorable? I find myself wanting to eat cotton candy while buying these items! Want to learn more about JennMaruskaDesign? Check out her policies page here and a highlight from that page:

Each of my items is created with the best materials available and a keen attention to detail. I am proud that many of my items, such as my needlebooks, are used by others during their own creative endeavors.

Want to check out more of her stuff? Yeah, I knew you would! Here are the pertinent sites:

Yay! I had a little bit of extra money this month and I decided to finally splurge on some jewelry from the Etsy seller jewelrybynatsuko. You may remember her from one of the earlier Etsy Store of the Week posts which you can read here.

So here are the pictures of the goodies!

The jewelry was beautifully packaged and arrived quickly which was a surprise since the jewelry is made to order. This jewelry is ready for gift giving in case you need an idea for a birthday, etc.

This was the perfect thing to get in the mail today since I’ve not only had a tough week, but a particularly tough day. I had to go to the doctor today for some pelvic pain and it looks like some surgery is in my near future. We’re doing a non-invasive test first just to rule out some possibilities, but it’s scary! Not only is any surgery scary, but scarier is the thought that I might not be able to have children. There’s no real test for fertility so it’s hard to know without trying first. And I’m not sure we’re ready.

Blah…

I’m starting to tear up just typing it! Anyway, I’ll keep you all informed as I go. If you want to check out more jewelry by jewelrybynatsuko, check out her Etsy shop here.